Chattanooga is ranked 8th out of America’s 100 largest metro areas for the best “Bang For Your Buck” city by Forbes magazine. The study measured affordability, housing rates, and more. Since 1990, Chattanooga has been recognized as a Tree City Community.[3]

The bad

Commission minutes are only archived for six months, as opposed to three years.

Commissioners do not have individual phone numbers and email addresses listed.

Other than statement of interests, a list of employed lobbyists is available, memberships to lobbying organizations, and associated fees are unavailable; Does not disclose if belongs to government sector lobbying associations.

Public records request

In September 2009, the Hamilton County Residents Against Annexation group sought records from the county of "emails, studies, reports" and other documents relating to a proposed annexation by Chattanooga of about 4,000 homes.

The county told the group it could look at the county's website or talk to the county's attorney.

Kyle Holden, president of the anti-annexation group, objected to this, telling a local newspaper, "We just feel that the Tennessee Law is on our side as far as obtaining documents from the city and don't feel that we should have to go through attorneys to get this information."[16]

Elected Officials & Salaries

Name

Title

Salary

Jim Coppinger

Mayor

Fred Skillern

District 1 Commissioner

James Fields

District 2 Commissioner

Mitch McClure

District 3 Commissioner

Warren Mackey

District 4 Commissioner

Gregory Beck

District 5 Commissioner

Joe Graham

District 6 Commissioner

Larry Henry

District 7 Commissioner

Tim Boyd

District 8 Commissioner

Chester Bankston

District 9 Commissioner

Administrative Officials & Salaries

Name

Title

Salary

Bill Bennett

Assessor of Property

Michael Compton

Chief of Staff

Paula Thompson

Clerk of Court

William Knowles

County Clerk

Bill Cox

District Attorney

Budget

The budget adopted for FY2012 is $184,213,210, lower than the 2011 budget. Forty percent of the fund is dedicated to operations, thirty-nine percent to employee compensation and twenty-one percent to employee benefits.[17]

Stimulus

The city of Chattanooga, the Hamilton County seat, received $42,902,366.56 of federal stimulus money in 3 contracts and 36 grants.[18]

Local taxes

Taxes (both property and business) generate the most revenue in 2012, expected to reach $135,260,272.

Included in property taxes is that portion of the property tax allocated to the General Fund, which is $1.3926 per $100 of assessed valuation. In FY 2012, one cent of tax revenue is estimated to generate $805,454, provided by the Assessor of Property. The Assessor monitors and evaluates newly completed construction not currently on property rolls, and makes projections of values on construction in progress that is expected to be completed by the date of the property tax levy.[19]

City In the News

In March 2012, Tennessee received a “C” in the State Integrity Investigation, a report that analyzes state governments’ accountability and risk for corruption. Even with the average grade, TN ranks #8 in the nation and is cited for establishing an ethics commission six years ago, although that commission has not yet issued a single ethics penalty and complaints are not made available to the public. [20]

In January 2012, the Chattanooga city attorney will investigate a city-owned tennis club, Champion’s Club, after an audit found its managers were operating it as a for-profit business and using city employees to help run it. Parks and Recreation Director Larry Zehnder challenged the audit and claims that the problems in the results are due to lost records. The audit found that the manager operated a pro shop, giving lessons and conducting tournaments, while pocketing the revenue. The managers collected tens of thousands of dollars from events held at the publicly owned tennis courts, and in many cases, the money was never seen by the city.[21]

Also in January 2012, the Chattanooga City Council began investigating whether an $800,000 contract was awarded properly to a friend of the city’s chief of staff. The move comes after auditor Stan Sewell made public an informal review of city contracts and found that a those made to Excalibur Integrated Systems, Inc. were awarded without soliciting bids.[22]

Operation Tennessee Waltz was a sting operation set up by federal and state law enforcement agents, including the FBI and TBI. The operation led to the arrest of seven Tennessee state lawmakers and two “bagmen” in the indictment in May 2005. Additional arrests of two county commissioners, one from Hamilton County and Shelby County occurred days later. Three officials from Hamilton County were sentenced to time in prison and six officials were indicted from Memphis. Six of the elected officials were Democrats and two were Republicans.[23]

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